Therapy Update

Speech

Ruby is rocking and rolling. I keep saying it, but she adds so many new words and blends all of the time. This means articulation suffers as she tries to keep up with her expanding vocabulary, but that's why we do so many hours of speech each week (to correct). She still does speech 2x/week at school as part of her day, and then she does speech once or twice a week with private therapists that focus on different parts of her articulation and blending. Ruby is stringing together thoughts to make toddler-esque sentences now; it is so cool!

PT/Aquatic Therapy

This is Ruby's favorite type of therapy. She LOVES the pool, she LOVES Miss Beth, and that means she LOVES Aquatic Therapy! Ruby is jumping all of the place now, which was our main goal when we started. She can jump from standing still, she can jump forward, she can jump off a curb, she can jump twice in a row (sometimes). For an hour each week Ruby and Miss Beth motor around the pool, sometimes with ankle weights, kicking (on her stomach, on her back, seated, on a kick board), maneuvering pool stairs, jumping up and down in different depths and on dry land, doing sit ups, balancing on one leg, balancing in the water on a noodle or Miss Beth's knee....it's an exhausting hour!

OT

This is Ruby's biggest struggle right now. We still haven't acquired private Occupational Therapy. She receives it 2x/week at school, and when she stays for the full day at school, the afternoon focuses on handwriting, which hits this area. That being said, when I work with her at home, my assessment is that her skills are still very lacking. Her control of crayons, pencils, etc. is not great at all, and even tracing straight lines is difficult, so the only letters she can at all form on her own are "O" and "X". And those are not on a specific writing line, but wherever on the paper she lands. We are tackling that harder than ever at home right now. We do a lot of thera-putty, cutting, using utensils to pick up objects...that girl works hard!